Govt committed to strengthening primary healthcare, essential services: Nadda

New Delhi: India's health system embraces a "whole of government" and "whole of society" approach to achieve universal health coverage, with emphasis on strengthening primary healthcare and essential services, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said on Monday.

"In line with the commitment to provide health cover for all, the Union Government launched the world's largest publicly funded health assurance scheme, the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)," he said.

"This initiative covers over 120 million families, providing an annual hospitalization benefit of USD 6,000 per family," he said during his inaugural address to the 77th session of the WHO Southeast Asia Region (SEARO) here. He highlighted that the government has recently expanded the scheme to all citizens aged 70 years and above, a statement here said.

"This expansion will benefit around 45 million families, including 60 million elderly population, by providing them free health insurance coverage. It underscores the government's commitment to ensuring universal and inclusive healthcare for India's growing elderly demographic," he said.

Recognising the growing public health challenges posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the Union Health Minister stated that India is implementing the National Programme for Prevention and Control of NCDs since 2010 to address conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

This initiative has led to establishment of 753 NCD clinics, 356 day care centres, and 6,238 Community Health Centres to focus on preventive measures at an early stage, the statement stated.

Nadda said India, as a lighthouse country in the digital health arena, is poised to share its Digital Public Infrastructure such as Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, e-Sanjeevani, Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP), SAKSHAM etc by providing technical and financial support through the global initiative on digital health - a WHO-managed network, launched during India's G20 Presidency.

He said following the success of the CoWIN digital platform during the COVID-19 pandemic, India has conceptualised the online digital platform-UWIN, for the Universal Immunization Programme.

Understanding the important role that traditional and complementary medicine plays across numerous Southeast Asian member states, Nadda emphasised that India has backed the WHO in creating the Global Traditional Medicine Centre, aimed at promoting these systems on a global scale.

"India's experience in integrating this system with the conventional system of medicine has led to the provision of holistic healthcare, promoting overall well-being and expanding the range of healthcare services," he said.

"Our Ayushman Aarogya Mandirs that are community Health and Wellness Centres are significant in providing comprehensive healthcare through both traditional and conventional systems of medicines, ensuring the physical and mental well-being of our citizens," he added.